Chuck7

IfI get blessed and get a Tom..how do I prepare it for the freezer?

Now, I do have some exerience .We usedto raise chickens, ring necked pheasants, bob whites, mallardsand chukar partridge. I 've killed many doves.

With the dove we simply and quickly pulled the skin off the breast and threw the rest of the bird away. With our chickens we wouild put them in boiling water for 1 minute..this made plucking the feathers.easier
How should I prepare the turkey for the freezer?
Thanking you in advance.
C7

JW

Here ya go.....I sue this for my Hunter Education class.

For IMG code
The way I clean birds any bird.

I fillet everything usable out.

1.Turn bird on its back.


2.Grab a hunk of skin around the Beard and cut it free. Then trim the excess skin off and save this. You will not need to treat this with anything as it will dry just like it is as long as there is no skin left attached to it.



http://my.execpc.com/~dsskmsb/.photos/jwdob2002/beard_cut1.jpg" />



3.If you want to save the tail cut it free from the body slightly below the anus of the bird. I'll post on that later.

4.With a fillet knife (I use a 3 inch or less blade – small Rapala fillet knife my favorite) grab a piece of skin right at the end of the breast and make a small slit through the skin but not into the meat or the stomach cavity.



5.Now cut this all the way to the neck past the breast-bone to the neck. You can rip this too but if it gets caught and starts pulling precious meat with it use your fillet knife. This would be similar to taking the skin off a fish fillet.



Should look like this




6.This is the other end with the crop exposed – notice how clean my hands are.


7.Now make one cut under the skin but not into the leg on each leg and peal the skin/feathers away. Do the same thing with each leg to the very last place of feathers. (Top of the leg joint.)

8.Cut around each leg joint and remove feet.



9.Now remove the crop located in front of the wish bone. This is an air like-sack which will also contain the crop. Remove and as much excess skin as you can.

10.Now with the skin pealed back all from the breast, legs and pushed back to the thigh it is time to cut out our the turkey breast fillets.

11.Look for the keel bone. It is the center top line of the turkey breast as the turkey lays on its back. Make a cut straight down and slightly angled against this bone all the way to the bottom. Make this incision all the way back to the stomach cavity. In the front at the wish-bone cut with the knife down the wish-bone to the shoulder (wing/body joint)

12.Then start filleting from the stomach cavity back towards the wing.

13.At the wing cut it free. There you have one turkey breast fillet out.



14.Do the same to the other side

15.Push one leg flat until it is laying on the table.



16.At the body cut parallel with the body cutting out the top of the thigh




17.Sever the tendons of the hip joint. You should have one thigh/drumstick free.

18. Do the same on the other leg/thigh.


19.Wash the fillets and take off any excess skin membrane and I also cut the thighs from the legs.

20.I them bag and freeze to which I think I might use for a meal.

21.Toss the carcass away…You be done!

Oh save dose wings....
JW

MKMGOBL

Thanks for posting Greatinformation to have. I plan on showing this to a new member of our WV camp this year. So if and when he kills his first turkey, I can just sit back and enjoy not getting my hands dirty on someone elses bird

Tree climber

I do a little different than JW does,kinda sorta.LOL

I hang my bird by the head or neck,about head high, cut the beard off, grab the skin at the midneck and pull easy.the skin will pull down to the wings and breast.hohl the neck and cut the wings off ( Send Them To JW) , then spin him around and pull the skin off the back; it should go all the way down.cut the tail and feet off.take down lay on table and do as JW shows.
I save the breast to fry,the rest goes in the crockpot to cook overnight.I save everything,including the carcuss.

go to the cooking room and see my post on "Wild Turkey And Dressing"

can't beat it.

JLmoore1956

Yepper pretty much the way I do it too.....

Chuck7

You guys are awesome.Thanks so much for the information..Next step, shoot a turkey. I'm sure glad it's not goingto rain tomorrow. Our first day is tomorrow if one has a quota.
C7

phall2

I would sticky this...

BuckRogers

Another way to do it if you want a whole turkey,(not just the and legs) for smoking or roasting and such, is to pluck them. now this will mean that there will be about 1 trillion feathers everywhere and it takes awhile but the end result is good. I would imagine if you raised all those birds you know what your doing when it comes to plucking and taking of the head and such. Obviously you have to remove the guts and wash out the cavity. The easiest way to do this is to cut open around the anus and start pulling stuff out. cut the legs off at the "knees" and the wings off at the first joint. you dont have to pluck the entire wing as its impossible to do anyway. you also need to remove the crop which is easy just cut it out like the picture up above shows. cut the head off as close the body as you can. I think thats about it, If anyone has any questions jsut ask and I'll be happy to answer them. Keeping the skin on the bird seems to help them from drying out.

Chuck7

Another way to do it if you want a whole turkey,(not just the and legs) for smoking or roasting and such, is to pluck them. now this will mean that there will be about 1 trillion feathers everywhere and it takes awhile but the end result is good. I would imagine if you raised all those birds you know what your doing when it comes to plucking and taking of the head and such.{ I did not raise them..my step dad did. I bought him an incubator for Christmas one year...I was about 13.He ordered some bob whitequail eggs and off went a very nice hobbie. The quail were the hardest to raise. }Obviously you have to remove the guts and wash out the cavity. The easiest way to do this is to cut open around the anus and start pulling stuff out. cut the legs off at the "knees" and the wings off at the first joint. you dont have to pluck the entire wing as its impossible to do anyway. you also need to remove the crop which is easy just cut it out like the picture up above shows. cut the head off as close the body as you can. I think thats about it, If anyone has any questions jsut ask and I'll be happy to answer them. Keeping the skin on the bird seems to help them from drying out. That makes since my friend..Dipping our birds in scalding hot water helped to ploch those tough pin feathers. Pheasants were very easy to raise and we would eat their eggs. Once we caught a wild ring neck trying to get into the cage. My dad dug a hole. Because of a pheasants long tail..it will not back out of a hole..like a ground hog hole. He put cracked corn into the hole and the pheasant couldn't back out. he lived with the other incubated pheasants.

_____________________________

Buck Rogers

Dixon

Great info. I definitely agree that this should be stickied.